


The Meaning of Sunflowers

by digthewriter



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Cute, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, M/M, Pining, Remix, art to fic remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:33:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23387428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digthewriter/pseuds/digthewriter
Summary: When you wake up on your birthday and you don't know ifheremembers it.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 10
Kudos: 69
Collections: Stucky Remix 2020





	The Meaning of Sunflowers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alby_mangroves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alby_mangroves/gifts).
  * Inspired by [ART](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/575203) by Alby_Mangroves. 



> All my thanks to DFC for the beta.

It's the 4th of July. America's birthday. 

Steve wakes up to the chime of his phone. It isn't the alarm—he knows so because he still hasn't been able to figure how to set an alarm on his phone. Natasha keeps telling him to "talk to it," and it'll know. Steve isn't convinced. 

>>Happy Birthday, Steve.<<

The first one is from Nat, but the rest start pouring in. It is his birthday, isn't it? Of course he knows it. Remembers it…but…? Would he even dare think Bucky would remember it?

Things have been going back to normal, for lack of a better word, but they aren't _normal_ normal. 

Too normal but not normal enough. A thing no one will be able to understand. 

A thing he can't tell anyone.

Steve lets out a whiny moan, turns his phone to silent, and rolls over in bed. He pulls up the covers and hides from the world. What would he do? Walk in and tell Bucky, "Hey, bud… so it's kinda my birthday. It's okay if you forgot. I mean, I didn't expect you to remember. Or know…" 

Would it be considered: Bucky _forgot_. Or maybe _this_ Bucky just doesn't know. Like, he doesn't know a lot of things. Or doesn't want to remember. 

When Steve finally makes it out of his room because no, you can't stay in bed all day even if it's your birthday, he's surprised Bucky isn't on the couch. It's where he's been sleeping since Steve convinced Bucky to stay with him. 

"It's for your protection," Steve had said, and he'd wondered how many of his friends knew it was a lie, and how many of them suspected it was because Steve didn't want to be without Bucky. 

There are things Steve has told everyone about their friendship, then, there are things Steve hasn't. Such as when Steve had risked everything to save Bucky, they hadn't been apart. He knew what people thought about them living in the same quarters, and they hadn't cared. He knew people suspected they'd slept in the same bed, and Bucky had told them all to fuck off. 

Now, Bucky was here, and it was all that mattered. It didn't make a difference how Bucky insisted on sleeping on the couch, even when Steve had offered him the bed and opted to take the couch himself—or Steve also had suggested he could swap the normal couch to one with a pull-out bed. 

"I don't want to be a burden, Steve." Bucky had dropped his things in the corner of the living room. "I'll be out of your way as soon as I figure things out." 

That statement had hit Steve like a brick wall. He didn't want Bucky to _leave_. Since then, Steve has done everything he could to make Bucky comfortable but not smother him. Give him the space, yet linger around just in case Bucky would need him. 

Now since he's woken up alone to an empty apartment on his birthday, it's clear as day Bucky does not need him. 

He starts to get the coffee ready, reaching into the cabinet above the sink for two mugs. He has half a mind to put one back, but maybe he's overreacting. Maybe Bucky just went out for a walk, which he's known to do from time to time. 

"You need to relax," he tells himself as the machine starts to percolate. 

"Who needs to relax?" 

Bucky's voice booms in the room, nearly giving Steve a start. The hiss of the coffee machine and the drip of the liquid is the only other sound in the room as Steve hears his own heart beating fast. 

"You scared me," Steve says, looking at Bucky, unable to hide his grin. "Where did you go?" 

"To get these…" Bucky steps forward and he pulls out a bouquet of flowers from behind his back. They're sunflowers with lilies and snapdragons. And Buck's got this shit-eating grin on his face. 

It's familiar. _They_ are familiar. 

As if _Steve_ could ever forget. The first time Bucky had bought Steve flowers it'd been a similar combination. 

_"I like to think about sunflowers when I think about you,_ " Bucky had said, " _you brighten up my days."_

"Oh," is all Steve can manage today, as he had all those years ago in a different apartment, and in a different part of New York. 

"You didn't think I forgot, did you?" Bucky asks, offering the flowers to Steve who is still simply staring at them, and then at Bucky, and then back at the bouquet. 

Steve feels the warmth rise up from his chest and then to his cheeks, which are, by now, burning as he fights back tears. _Man,_ he can be such a girl sometimes. He hadn't cried the first time Bucky had got him flowers, and not even the tenth time, but now? It's been different, they have been different, and this means something totally new. 

"You remembered," Steve says. 

"How could I forget?" Bucky is looking right at Steve's lips, and his eyes don't flinch, they don't look anywhere else. Steve sees the thirst in them; he can't help but grab Bucky by the front of his hoodie and pull him close. 

"Come here," he says, before Steve kisses him. 

Bucky wraps his arm around Steve's shoulder, the flowers tickling the back of Steve's neck, as he smiles into the kiss. He parts his lips and Bucky's tongue slides in, and Steve thinks that in this moment, he could all but die and go to heaven and that'd be alright. 

([LINK](https://artgroves.tumblr.com/post/158431582829/))

**Author's Note:**

> FYI... _Sunflowers symbolize adoration, loyalty and longevity. Much of the meaning of sunflowers stems from its namesake, the sun itself. ... Sunflowers are known for being “happy” flowers, making them the perfect gift to bring joy to someone's day._


End file.
